Fourth test flight for SpaceShipTwo was the first mission for NASA

Share this:

Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic Chairman and founder, standing on the flightline before the Dec. 13 flight of Spaceship Two.
The spacecraft performed its first mission for NASA on the flight. (Virgin Galactic)

The Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two does not feature a front landing wheel, making it more lightweight. (Virgin Galactic)

Virgin Galactic reaches space for the first time during its 4th powered flight from Mojave, Calif. The aircraft called VSS Unity reached an altitude of 271,268 feet reaching the lower altitudes of space. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

Virgin Galactic unveils its new SpaceShipTwo spacecraft at the Mojave Spaceport on December 7, 2009 near Mojave, California. The eight-person VSS Enterprise, named after the Star Trek ship of the same name, is the first of a series of space-planes for customers of Virgin Galactic who have paid around $200,000 for a suborbital flight into space. British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson is financing the spacecraft and aerospace designer Burt Rutan is building it through The Spaceship Company, a joint venture of Scaled Composites and Virgin Group. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

SpaceShipTwo pilot Frederick “C.J.” Sturckow on the morning of the spacecraft’s first mission for NASA. (Virgin Galactic)

SpaceShipTwo pilot Mark Stuckey on the morning of the spacecraft’s first mission for NASA. (Virgin Galactic)

Virgin Galactic employees load one of four NASA-sponsored research payloads into the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity ahead of its Dec. 13 flight, its first for NASA and fourth test mission since the ship’s unveiling in 2016. (Virgin Galactic)

SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity on the morning of its Dec. 13 flight on a mission for NASA. (Virgin Galactic)

Diagram explaining how SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity launches with the help of a cargo aircraft called WhiteKnight Two (Virgin Galactic)

SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity (Virgin Galactic)

SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity (Virgin Galactic)

SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity. (Virgin Galactic)

VirginGalactic claims its SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity fully reusable, with the exception of its motor’s nozzle and fuel cartridge. (Virgin Galactic)

Virgin Galactic employees pose for a group photo around the SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity. (Virgin Galactic)

Sir Richard Branson speaks to attendees after Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket was rolled out, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Mojave, Calif. The company is preparing to resume flight testing for the first time since a 2014 accident destroyed the original and killed one of its two pilots. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Sir Richard Branson poses with employees in front of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket after it was unveiled, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Mojave, Calif. The company is preparing to resume flight testing for the first time since a 2014 accident destroyed the original and killed one of its two pilots. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

In this Oct. 17, 2011 file photo, guests stand outside the new Spaceport America hangar in Upham, N.M. Operators of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority that runs Spaceport America in southern New Mexico are seeking greater confidentiality for tenants that include aspiring commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

Virgin employees sit in the cabin of a prototype Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo spacecraft at the Science Museum on February 14, 2007 in London, England. The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo is destined to be the first ever vehicle for space tourism. The SpaceShipTwo will carry six passengers and two pilots, offering a total flight time of 2 hours. Around 200 firm reservations have been placed already with projected flight costs estimated to be $200,000 per passenger. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)

Virgin Galactic reaches space for the first time during its 4th powered flight from Mojave, Calif. The aircraft called VSS Unity reached an altitude of 271,268 feet reaching the lower altitudes of space. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

A jet carrying Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship has taken off from Mojave Air and Space Port on Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 in Mojave, Calif. The jet will climb to an altitude near 43,000 feet and then release Virgin Space Ship Unity. The pilots hope to fly the rocket ship to an altitude exceeding 50 miles (80 kilometers), which Virgin Galactic considers the boundary of space. (AP Photo/John Antczak)

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceshipTwo takes off for a suborbital test flight on December 13, 2018, in Mojave, California. – Virgin Galactic marked a major milestone on Thursday as its spaceship made it to a peak height, or apogee, of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers), after taking off attached to an airplane from Mojave, California, then firing its rocket motors to reach new heights. (Photo by Gene Blevins/AFP/Getty Images)

Sheriff’s deputies inspect the wreckage of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShip 2 in a desert field November 2, 2014 north of Mojave, California on The Virgin Galactic SpaceShip 2 crashed on October 31, 2014 during a test flight, killing one pilot and seriously injuring another. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic’s tourism spaceship climbed more than 50 miles high above California’s Mojave Desert on Thursday, reaching for the first time what the company considers the boundary of space.

The rocket ship hit an altitude of 51 miles before beginning its gliding descent, said mission official Enrico Palermo. It landed on a runway minutes later.

“We made it to space!” Palermo said.

Thursday’s supersonic flight takes Virgin Galactic a big step closer to turning the dream of commercial space tourism into reality. The company aims to take paying customers on the six-passenger rocket, which is about the size of an executive jet. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has said he wants to be one of the first on board.

Branson greeted the two pilots after the test, declaring “Space is Virgin territory!”

Virgin Galactic considers 50 miles the boundary of space because it is used by the U.S. Air Force and other U.S. agencies. That’s different than a long-held view that the boundary is at 62 miles. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides noted that recent research favors the lower altitude.

At the start of the test flight, a special jet carrying the Virgin Space Ship Unity flew to an altitude near 43,000 feet before releasing the craft. The spaceship ignited its rocket engine and it quickly hurtled upward and out of sight of viewers on the ground. The spaceship reached Mach 2.9, nearly three times the speed of sound.

“It was a great flight and I can’t wait to do it again,” said Sturckow, who flew on the space shuttle four times.

Virgin Galactic’s development of its spaceship took far longer than expected and endured a setback when the first experimental craft broke apart during a 2014 test flight, killing the co-pilot.

More than 600 people have committed up to $250,000 for rides that include several minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth far below.

The endeavor began in 2004 when Branson announced the founding of Virgin Galactic in the heady days after the flights of SpaceShipOne, the first privately financed manned spacecraft that made three flights into space.

Funded by the late billionaire Paul G. Allen and created by maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, SpaceShipOne won the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The prize was created to kick-start private development of rocket ships that would make spaceflight available to the public.

When Branson licensed the SpaceShipOne technology, he envisioned a fleet carrying paying passengers by 2007, launching them from a facility in southern New Mexico called Spaceport America.

But there were significant setbacks. Three technicians were killed in 2007 by an explosion while testing a propellant system at Scaled Composites LLC, which built SpaceShipOne and was building the first SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.

Then, in 2014, SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight by Scaled Composites when the co-pilot prematurely unlocked its unique “feathering” system and it began to deploy. The co-pilot was killed but the injured pilot managed to survive a fall from high altitude with a parachute.

During descent, the craft’s twin tails are designed to rotate upward to slow it down, then return to a normal flying configuration before the craft glides to a landing on a runway.

New versions of SpaceShipTwo are built by a Virgin Galactic sister company and flight testing is now in-house. Its previous test flight reached 32 miles (52 kilometers).

Branson isn’t alone in the space tourism business: Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin is planning to take space tourists on suborbital trips, using the more traditional method of a capsule atop a rocket that blasts off from a launch pad. SpaceX’s Elon Musk recently announced plans to take a wealthy Japanese entrepreneur and his friends on a trip around the moon.